PROVIDENCE – A small nonprofit in Warwick working to make “wishes” come true for children with life-threatening illnesses thought somebody was playing a joke on them when they received a $100,000 grant from Walmart.

A Wish Come True Inc. was chosen by a vote of Rhode Island Walmart associates out of five statewide nonprofits.

“We thought someone was playing a joke on us because [such a sizable donation] just doesn’t happen,” said Beverly Molles, director of program services, to Providence Business News. “This is a first [for us].”

A Wish Come True is currently working on about 40 wishes for children in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. The funding from Walmart will help them complete 20 to 25 of those wishes, she said.

Walmart also gave $25,000 each to seven other local nonprofits, including:

Comments

I like how the company donates the money to a local charity selected by their employees who live in the community. You see this in large companies more and more. In my honest opinion, it's the only way to go about corporate giving. I've worked at institutions where corporate giving was based on the desire of a chief executive or upper management. It's not that the charities chosen were bad, but it always left a bad taste in my mouth when the only choice I had to give through work (which was my sole source of income) was based on an executive who, for the most part, wasn't even from the area.

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